Simple cards to access health services, electronic payment, mobile internet, public transport, pay TV and many more applications. This is what smart cards can do. Affordably, securely, for every citizen, and working everywhere. These cards can be individual, multifunctional or embedded in different devices. The development of these technologies will open up new markets with new opportunities for consumers and business in the future.
A smart card is a credit-card sized plastic card embedded with an integrated circuit chip that makes it "smart". This marriage between a convenient plastic card and a microprocessor allows an immense amount of information to be stored, accessed and processed either online or offline. Smart cards can store several hundred times more data than a conventional card with a magnetic stripe. The information or application stored in the IC chip is transferred through an electronic module that interconnects with a terminal or a card reader. A contactless smart card has an antenna coil which communicates with a receiving antenna to transfer information. Depending on the type of the embedded chip, smart cards can be either memory cards or processor cards.
Literally, billions of smart cards are already in use. Worldwide smart card sales could reach 1.6 billion units in 1998, up 23% from 1.3 billion units in 1997. Western Europe accounts for about 70% of the current smart card uses, followed by South America and Asia with about 10% each, while North America languishes at less than 5%.